Melissa Carr

“So many people abuse the system, it’s impossible for the hardworking people to get the help they need,” she’d say. This was the construct she’d built in her head: Most of the beneficiaries of the system were extravagant moochers, but she—despite never having worked in her life—was an obvious exception.”
― J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

“He wondered if this was what people were doing—were they making dinners with their family, holding babies, recounting days? Was this what life was like for them?   Albie’s”
― Ann Patchett, Commonwealth

“In other words, despite all of the environmental pressures from my neighborhood and community, I received a different message at home. And that just might have saved me.”
― J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis